From a Venn Diagram to “Oooey Gluey,” a Day with the Threes

Today as the children came in, they were introduced to “ramps” and given a marble. The were asked to figure out how move the marble without touching it. Children explored and discovered with lots of laughter and cheering.
“How can you stop the marble from rolling across the floor?”
“With a DINOSAUR!” Sure enough, a dinosaur at the end of the ramp stopped the marble! A panda worked also!
Some raised one end of their ramp with blocks, others with their hands. Some added another ramp. It was a great beginning exploration of physical science!
After circle time, we reviewed Jan Brett’s “The Mitten.” * Then we read Jim Aylesworth’s “The Mitten.” How were they the same? How were they different? We made a venn diagram on the rug with jumpropes, and had pictures of the characters and events of the stories.
“Was the mouse in Jan Brett’s version, today’s version, or both?”
A very high level concept for 3’s but they did very well for the first time!
After snack, and a half-birthday celebration, I promised the children ooey gluey fun! We mixed shaving cream and glue and beat it with a mixer! They LOVED spreading on paper, their hands… “OOEY GLUEY! OOEY GLUEY!”
After they were (mostly) cleaned up, we matched some mittens: “These are green mittens with red spots.” Then we read “The Jacket I Wear in the Snow.” Finally the children got on THEIR snowclothes, and went outside for some snowy fun!

*Please note: I know grammatically titles of books should be underlined, but technically, I’m not sure how to underline for this post!